ATCON Sets Broadband Agenda for Buhari

ASSOCIATION of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria ‎(ATCON) at the celebration of its 21st anniversary urged the federal government to improve broadband penetration in the country . At the event, ATCON also recognised the tremendous improvement Nigeria’s telecommunications has recorded, and sought more government attention in critical infrastructural development to spur broadband penetration.

Speaking at the event, Engineer Lanre Ajayi, president of ATCON, said while the Association recognises the achievement the country has recorded in telecommunications sector, the have also realised that there is still more work to be done.

Ajayi said, “Our broadband penetration only grew from 6% in the year 2013 to a mere 10% in 2015‎, mid-way into the year 2018, which our broadband plan targets we should reach a broadband penetration of 30%.

“If we do not expedite the implementation process of the broadband plan and come up with new ideas and vigour, it is obvious that we may not meet the 30% penetration goal”, he said.

He said as a way of mobilising the stakeholders and generate ‎the stakeholders and generate new ideas, ATCON National Executive Council approved the formation of the Telecoms Industry Advisory Council (TIAC), which is platform that brings people with deep experience but may have retired with current actors in the industry together to brainstorm and discuss contemporary industry issues with the aim of guiding the industry by issuing advisory notes to the industry, through ATCON NEC.

He also said, as a way of ‎ensuring good ethical and business conduct which is aimed at improving the business environment a build public confidence in the industry practitioners, a code of conduct approved at ATCON AGM was launched at the 21st Anniversary.

While recognising that 21 years ago, at the time ATCON was formed, the state of telecommunications industry in Nigeria was quite unimpressive, as there was ‎less than 400,000 telephone lines to a population of 105 million people as at 1994, resulting in a telephone density of less than 0.4.